please help! humidity?!

I'm new to incubating and I built a Styrofoam incubator. everything had been perfect with it until today when (day 17) that I started trying to raise the humidity. it's stayed at about 100.5 and humidity at about 49-52. so I added a bowl of water to start getting humidity up and it worked humidity came up to 60 but so did the temperature in the incubator like 106! what do I do?!

ahobby988 said:

I'm new to incubating and I built a Styrofoam incubator. everything had been perfect with it until today when (day 17) that I started trying to raise the humidity. it's stayed at about 100.5 and humidity at about 49-52. so I added a bowl of water to start getting humidity up and it worked humidity came up to 60 but so did the temperature in the incubator like 106! what do I do?!

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What kind of thermostat are you using? Adding water should have not brought up the temp unless the water was hotter than inside the incubator?

it's just one that does temp and humidity I got from wamart

do you think I need to try getting a different one?

ahobby988 said:

it's just one that does temp and humidity I got from wamart

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That's a thermometer you are talking about---a "thermostat" regulates the temp---shuts on and off your heat source to hold the temp some what steady. You using a thermostat?

If you have a incubator without a thermostat---unless you monitor it 24/7 there is no way to control the temp good with different size bulbs----if the room it is in gets warmer or cooler so will the temp in the incubator----you can get lucky and get the bulb just right as long as the room stays just right. Cracking the lid to let off some heat will also cause it to loose humidity which is really needed during the hatch to have a good hatch.

Was the water you added to bring up the humidity warm? If so that is probably why the temp jumped up a lot. You can plug your incubator into a power strip so you can just switch it on and off(or unplug/plug) to control the temp so you can get through this hatch---but you will have better hatches if you will add a thermostat. Good Luck

its a indoor thermometer/ humidity reader I got from Walmart and I'm using a 15 whatt light bulb. I built it myself I thought it would just be something to do with my kids but I have fallen in love with doing it lol I'm probably going to buy a real incubator for next time but I need to get these eggs hatched first ya know

ahobby988 said:

its a indoor thermometer/ humidity reader I got from Walmart and I'm using a 15 whatt light bulb. I built it myself I thought it would just be something to do with my kids but I have fallen in love with doing it lol I'm probably going to buy a real incubator for next time but I need to get these eggs hatched first ya know

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Just for info---A thermometer and a thermostat are NOT the same thing.

I asked if the water you added was warm---maybe a little to warm and caused the incubator to get to hot? You for sure need to get through this hatch which is why I stated to un-plug/plug the incubator(or use a power strip with a switch) to control the heat----the eggs will not survive at 106 long. You can add a thermostat to your build----after this hatch---Lowes has them for around $9 or you can order on line better ones for $10 to $20 and higher.

I know there not and I just miss read what u wrote. I cut a hole in the lid near the bulb and it brought the temperature down to 100 and the humidity is at 56 now I added another paper towel to try getting the humidity a little higher

PD-Riverman said:

What kind of thermostat are you using? Adding water should have not brought up the temp unless the water was hotter than inside the incubator?

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Generally adding water will bring it down not raise it unless it was hot water so xs 2 on that.

ahobby988 said:

I know there not and I just miss read what u wrote. I cut a hole in the lid near the bulb and it brought the temperature down to 100 and the humidity is at 56 now I added another paper towel to try getting the humidity a little higher

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New clean sponges in the water dish or wet tended and on the floor of the incubator will help bring up humidity.